PROVOCATIONS
Provocations is a regular feature introducing notable research voices, teams or organisations from critical thinking, creative practice or industry backgrounds.
Image ©2016 MJA Nashir
Sandra Niessen
Writing To Right Fashion’s Wrong.
Sandra Niessen (PhD Leiden University, Netherlands, 1985) is a leading scholar of the clothing and textile traditions of the Batak people of North Sumatra, Indonesia about whom she has written four books and numerous articles and produced a film. She taught for 15 years at the University of Alberta and has worked in numerous museums around the world conducting research, developing exhibitions and documenting collections. A founding member of the ‘Research Collective for Decoloniality and Fashion’ and ‘Fashion Act Now’ she is currently an activist working towards dismantling the Fashion industry.
In November 2020, State of Fashion (The Netherlands) produced an on-line programme entitled, ‘This is an Intervention’. Anthropologist Sandra Niessen was invited to share her thoughts about fashion and decoloniality in an on-line ‘Whataboutery’ and a published ‘Long Read’. She stressed the importance of diversity in dress systems, pointing out that the dominance of Western fashion has had a negative effect on indigenous cultures and their dress systems around the world. Afterwards, she received questions querying her right to presume what others should wear and pointing out that all should have the freedom to choose. This short piece is Sandra’s response to those questions.
Image © Karen Spurgin and Kirsten Scott
Kirsten Scott
Borrowed Cloth: Barkcloth
How can our affiliation with nature consciously be addressed through fashion in a way that creates clothing that makes us feel healthier? Can a socially - as well as environmentally - sustainable approach to fashion design be developed that integrates the health benefits of forest products? My research explores ways to create garments from a tree-based textile that are not only carbon-negative but also have a positive effect upon human health and wellbeing. This research takes a holistic approach in order to investigate the full potential of Ugandan barkcloth, produced from the wild fig tree, for responsible luxury clothing.
Kirsten Scott is a designer and practice-led researcher, whose work explores the modernisation of craft traditions for sustainable, luxury fashion, and argues the importance of the hand made and of indigenous knowledge systems in a technology driven industry.
She has worked extensively in Uganda on fashion–related development projects, navigating ethical concerns, the legacies of colonialism and the realities of the fashion market. Her methodology as a designer and researcher has become increasingly holistic and multi-disciplinary, concerned with fashion’s potential in benign design. Her practice adopts a slow approach that stands in opposition to the orthodoxies of speed and growth.